EU

Such a sweet smell
New year is a time for reflection and Matthew Parris has been doing just that. From Malawi in Central Africa he is recalling creosote in all its glory saying -

Scents of the past
Wherever we’ve been in Central Africa, the smell of creosote has been close. Banned by the EU, the dark, tar-scented wood preserver is no longer for sale in Britain, but in Africa the ever-present menace of white ants (termites) demands lashings of the stuff or else the pallid little creatures (which are killed by sunlight) extend their thin veins of earth-tubing up stakes, posts, planks, rafters — any wood they can get their mandibles into. It’s said that many African buildings stay standing only because the white ants hold hands.
But creosote repels them. Just as it attracts me. I simply adore the smell. I’ve been lying in bed at night breathing deeply its musky, tarry aroma, and remembering my childhood. Couldn’t a male fragrance be based on creosote? That and the rank aroma of EP 90 (gear oil), not unlike horse. I’ve even dreamt up a name for my new range of butch scents. Ambush

Third world travel
Eurostar and Eurotunnel, that's the split between the train and track deemed so essential by the EU. It's supposed to 'help' the consumer, or passenger as we used to say, in reducing something-or-other. It's not worked well in the UK but the word 'split' has just about summed things up between the train and track under the channel. Writing in the Times HERE Robin Henry gives the detail on the very public shouting match between these two. The "wrong kind of snow" was, we all thought, banished to history along with British Rail. However, the desire of the EU to control everything in Marxist style seems to have hit the buffers due to the white stuff that falls from the skies in winter.

Parliamentarian of the year, co-author of The Plan, MP for Harwich and Clacton, intellectual and genuine democrat Douglas Carswell is asking for a referendum on our membership of the EU. This is what he says:

Today I introduce a Bill in the House of Commons that would give the people a direct vote on Britain's membership of the European Union; the European Union Membership (Referendum) Bill.

All three political parties promised us a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Yet it never happened.

Rompypompy and Wossername
Back to the EU. The top Johnny job was supposed to go to a man who could stop the traffic in Beijing. Or so said that towering intellect David Miliband; was it ever explained why Beijing? No I don't think it was! Never mind, instead of a roadblock we get a Belgian van and Lady Wossername for the two top jobs in the EU.

There is a comedic tradition of poking fun at Belgium and the Belgians. We shall have to be careful. No longer can we say: “name ten famous Belgians” for fear of being asked to name ten good things about Lady Wossername!

The EU's training of the Afghan police force that Our Leader states is so vital for any exit strategy is evidently in such a mess that it is having to be taken over by NATO, financed by the US. The New York Times tells us that:

Two and a half years after it was started, the European Union’s police training mission in Afghanistan is understaffed, lacks adequate security and transportation, and has yet to develop a uniform training program and ..... is a logistical nightmare.